UB Will Be Epicenter of Summer Activity for All Ages with Second Year of "UB This Summer" Events

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The successful debut last year of "UB This Summer" means the series of workshops, lectures, summer camps and programs will be back for a second run beginning next month with some new additions to a lineup designed to showcase University at Buffalo faculty and facilities to the wider community.

Chief among the new programs is "Jump Start Your Education," an opportunity for high school students to spend some time on a university campus while earning college credit.

The university also has developed "CAS Encounters -- Adventures in Ideas," a series of weekend seminars featuring lectures and informal discussions on the history and culture of Rome, the Western New York works of Frank Lloyd Wright and the history of UB.

"We're building on the success of last year," notes Katherine Ferguson, UB associate vice provost and director of enrollment marketing and communications services, who is organizing the events.

"UB This Summer," says, Ferguson, "is intended to make the campus more approachable for the general public and give people who might not normally come on campus the opportunity to visit us. It also allows us to showcase what we have to offer and raises the awareness level of what goes on at UB within the general community."

The initiative gathers under one "umbrella" many activities that have been on campus for years, such as the sports camps run by the coaches of UB's athletic programs and the traditional summer academic offerings, as well as some new programs organized specifically for "UB This Summer."

One such program is "CAS Encounters," which will offer lectures, lively conversations and -- depending upon the topic -- site tours, theatrical presentations and concerts. The series will take place on Friday evenings and Saturdays in the Screening Room in the Center for the Arts on the UB North (Amherst) Campus. Seminars will focus on "The Splendor of Rome," June 4-5; "The Legacy of Frank Lloyd Wright in Western New York," June 25-26, and "Buffalo and its University: Chronology, Community and Controversy," July 9-10 and July 16-17. Part 1 of "Buffalo and its University" on July 9-10 will look at the early and deeply interrelated history of the City of Buffalo, incorporated in 1822, and UB, founded in 1846 as a private medical college. Part 2 on July 16-17 will cover how changes in the fields of arts, sciences and humanities have been articulated at UB. Fees for the seminars are $35 or $40, depending on the topic.

The "Jump Start Your Education High School Programs" will expand the university's outreach to high school students beyond the annual summer academic camp in computational science offered by the Center for Computational Research to select high school students.

The programs, geared to 10th, 11th and 12th graders, will offer sessions on such diverse topics as dinosaurs, health careers, engineering, management and media arts. "Our goal is to attract talented kids to come in the summer, to see what UB offers and then hopefully they'll think about coming here for the honors program or UB Distinguished Scholars," Ferguson says. "If we can get them to come to campus when they're younger, they will see that UB has exciting things to offer.

"I think that's the truth about a lot of Western New Yorkers," she adds. "UB is right in their backyard, but they aren't aware of the resources, or the energy -- all the things that happen on campus are foreign to many people, even though UB is right there in their own community. We're hoping to get high school students energized about the campus so that they say to their parents, 'I want to apply to UB and think about going here to college."

Other highlights of this year's edition of "UB This Summer" include:

• University and the World Lecture Series. Faculty members from across the university will lecture at noon on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from June 8 through Aug. 12. All lectures will be in 120 Clemens Hall on the North Campus, with the exception of the Wednesday lectures in July, which will be in 144 Farber Hall on UB's South (Main Street) Campus. Locating some lectures in Farber Hall is an attempt to attract members of the South Campus community, as well as members of the general public who work downtown, Ferguson says. While last year's lectures focused on faculty members within the College of Arts and Sciences, this year's lectures will be on more diverse topics, featuring faculty members from other units, such as Education, Dental Medicine, Nursing, and Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. The lectures are priced at $7 each for UB faculty, staff and students, or $50 for 10. The cost for the general public is $10 per lecture, $70 for 10, or $100 for the entire series. These prices include the lecture, lunch and accessible parking.

• Creative Non-fiction Writing Seminar with Alan Steinberg. A UB alumnus and freelance author and journalist who has published a number of books on icon athletes such as Michael Jordan and has interviewed world-renown figures like UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, Steinberg will conduct the workshop Aug. 12-14.

• Elder Law Evening Lecture Series. Sponsored by the Law School, it will offer presentations on a variety of topics, including the new Medicare prescription drug law, paying for long-term care and planning for death or disability.

• Genes, Proteins and Computers: Where the Future Meets the Past. This evening lecture series will address such topics as designing new drugs, biodefense and bioinformatics, and virtual surgery and telemedicine.

• School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences Evening Seminar Series. Designed to promote community education, this series will cover a variety of topics, ranging from medication management and over-the-counter medications to herbal therapies and genetics, pharmacogenomics and the Human Genome Project.

• Career Perspectives. This free series is designed to offer information for high school and college students exploring career options after graduation, as well as persons looking to make a career change. Among the career fields to be addressed are architecture and planning, engineering, education, law, nursing, and public health and health professions. The series was extremely popular last year, Ferguson says, noting that more than 1,000 persons participated in the free, evening seminars.

"UB This Summer" also includes many arts and music programs, among them the Explore the Arts theatrical arts program for middle school students, the North American Rock Guitar Competition, June in Buffalo and the Pantasmagoria Flute Conference

The "UB This Summer" Web site offers details on all of the programs and events being offered at the university. Go to UBThisSummer.net for information.